Blade length: need vs. want

[strategy9]

Most days, in the standard mundane day to day routine I call my life, I could suffice with a good and sharp 1.5 - 2" folder; cut open some sand bags at work, open some packages maybe, some packaging, cut a loose thread off my sons sweatshirt, cut my fingernails, etc.
(Shoot, some days I don't "need" a knife at all, and could easily suffice without one).

However there are those days which arise where I feel I do infact "need" more blade/belly, a thick cable, piece of rubber, wood, or frozen meat. Might possibly need to dig into something; be it a bullet wound or an old plaster wall; and because I sometimes might need a bit more blade, no matter how frequently or rarely that potential need may arise, I feel I therefore always need "enough" minimum blade for whatever may come my way, and that length for me (in a folder) is somewhere >3" but ≤4".

I all but always have a ≈3.5" folder on me give or take, but I often also have a smaller option and a fixed blade available to me as well, just in case.

Preparation is essential, and it is better to (comfortably) have and not need, then to need and not have.

 

[rje58]

I choose my EDC based on what I think of as the "life" factor. If life were predictable enough, I could choose to carry the IDEAL knife for whatever I was going to need it for, on that particular day. However, life is generally very unpredictable! Yes, more than half of my knife needs could actually be met by a Victorinox Classic with its little 1.5 inch blade! But I almost always carry a knife with a blade length of at least 3 inches, but less than 4 inches. Why? Because life is unpredictable, and I don't know what I'll need it for today.

Under 4 inch blade length for two reasons: larger knives are not as easy and comfortable to carry, and the law in many places tends to frown on carrying knives with a blade length over 4 inches, unless they are open carried on one's belt, and in some locations, even then.

At least three inches because, this might just be the day that I need to cut an accident victim out of a seatbelt, or cut my clothing out of some kind of machinery, or make emergency repairs to something. When I was an hour away from home and had a situation where I needed to do an emergency repair that involved cutting some PVC pipe, I was really glad I was carrying my Ontario Rat 1 with it's 3.6 inch blade! If life were predictable, I would have been carrying my hacksaw... or actually, the emergency never would have happened, because I would have known it was coming and done the repair in advance before it failed.

That's why I carry a knife with a longer blade length than I will PROBABLY need... today. Because of the "life" factor.